How can I get AmEx to stop sending me so much junk mail?

August 26, 2008 6:44 PM

3-5 times a week, every week, I receive promotional offers from American Express (with whom I am a current cardholder). How do I get them to stop?

The mailings vary, mostly they're offers of new cards. I don't even open them anymore- I just tear them up and throw them away, because I have supposedly gone 'paper free' on my billing. It's really annoying and an enormous waste of paper.

posted by tumbleweedjack to Grab Bag (14 answers total)

I called customer service and asked them to stop. They stopped. (American Express is one of the few ones that actually did stop after the first call, my other credit card companies have required more calls. Some still won't listen.). I believe "opt out of promotional letters and balance transfer offers" is a good phrase to use.
posted by sharkfu at 6:50 PM on August 26, 2008

Best answer: This site should stop all of them (not just AMEX.)
posted by sanko at 7:09 PM on August 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Just give American Express a call. I've never had this issue, however Amex has outstanding customer service and I'm sure the representative will be able to assist.

Also, the link that sanko posted is excellent. I can vouch for it's effectiveness as I was getting upwards of twenty offers a month for new cards from CapitalOne and WaMu (boy do they love going after the college kids) and they've all but vanished about a month later.
posted by cgomez at 7:13 PM on August 26, 2008

Just today I got a note in the mail from BofA titled "Federally Required Affiliate Marketing Notice". Here's the template for the note, which presumably applies to similar business, like AmEx. Here's the meat:

— [Optional: Federal law gives you the right to limit some but not all marketing from our affiliates. Federal law also requires us to give you this notice to tell you about your choice to limit marketing from our affiliates.]

— You may limit our affiliates in the [ABC] group of companies, such as our [credit card, insurance, and securities] affiliates, from marketing their products or services to you based on your personal information that we collect and share with them. This information includes your [income], your [account history with us], and your [credit score].

— Your choice to limit marketing offers from our affiliates will apply [until you tell us to change your choice]/[for x years from when you tell us your choice]/[for at least 5 years from when you tell us your choice]. [Include if the opt-out period expires.] Once that period expires, you will receive a renewal notice that will allow you to continue to limit marketing offers from our affiliates for [another x years]/[at least another 5 years].

The template goes on to include contact information for opting out, I'm sorry I don't have that for AmEx for you.
posted by carsonb at 7:14 PM on August 26, 2008

Best answer: Here we are:

Call [phone] to opt-in or opt-out of American Express marketing offers.
posted by carsonb at 7:18 PM on August 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Although this likely won't stop the mailings, I always find it fun to send their self-addressed paid envelopes right back to them, only empty! Snap! They just paid shipping charges on that empty envelope! I always think that if everyone in the world did the same, maybe the credit card companies would get the point... but I guess if it is just me doing it, they probably just think I'm absent-minded.
posted by foxinthesnow at 7:19 PM on August 26, 2008

You can opt out of ALL pre-screened credit card applications.

Call 1-800-5-OPTOUT or visit https://www.optoutprescreen.com.
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 7:33 PM on August 26, 2008

I had this problem with my bank. Calling customer service didn't help, so I called Investor Relations (I own stock in the bank). That worked.
posted by orthogonality at 7:33 PM on August 26, 2008

My memory of events is hazy, but I believe I still received offers from Amex even after using optoutprescreen. Optoutprescreen is great (and I still recommend using it) but I think it covers unsolicited offers from companies you don't have accounts with to start new accounts, but once you're a customer often times that's a different department to stop the balance transfer offers and such.
posted by sharkfu at 7:58 PM on August 26, 2008

If you call the number on the back of your card and ask to be removed from all marketing lists that should do it.
posted by winna at 10:13 PM on August 26, 2008

That's pretty strange. Are they all to the same form of your address/name? For instance, AARP has my mother listed as "MARTUNG" (probably my dad's sloppy handwriting accounts for that one) and it has shown up on some promotional offers. If some of them are coming to a different "person" than they record as cardholder, then opt-out may be more difficult.
posted by dhartung at 1:41 AM on August 27, 2008

That optoutprescreen site just leads to an empty page for me (FF3, WindowsXP :P).
posted by bluefly at 4:02 AM on August 27, 2008

That optoutprescreen site just leads to an empty page for me (FF3, WindowsXP :P)

I get this message:

The OptOutPrescreen.com website is only accessible through ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) located within the United States and its territories.

Of course, I'm not in the US. But if you're having a problem, maybe try a friend's internet connection (and a non-firefox browser while you're at it).
posted by Mike1024 at 8:59 AM on August 27, 2008

Oh, and I suppose it's not totally off-topic to throw out the Bank of America marketing opt-out number, since I have it sitting here: 800-282-2884
posted by carsonb at 9:12 AM on August 27, 2008